24-7 Allentown Immediate Crypto
Computer Malware Damage Assessment and Restoration Help

Ransomware : Your Worst IT Disaster
Ransomware has become a too-frequent cyberplague that presents an extinction-level danger for organizations unprepared for an attack. Different versions of crypto-ransomware like the CrySIS, Fusob, Bad Rabbit, SamSam and MongoLock cryptoworms have been out in the wild for years and still cause destruction. Newer strains of crypto-ransomware such as Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, Netwalker, Snatch or Nephilim, as well as additional unnamed malware, not only encrypt on-line data but also infect any available system backup. Files synchronized to cloud environments can also be encrypted. In a poorly designed system, it can render automatic restoration useless and effectively sets the entire system back to square one.

Recovering services and data following a crypto-ransomware attack becomes a race against the clock as the victim tries its best to stop the spread, cleanup the virus, and resume mission-critical activity. Since ransomware takes time to replicate, penetrations are often launched at night, when penetrations typically take more time to identify. This multiplies the difficulty of rapidly mobilizing and organizing a knowledgeable response team.

Progent has a range of solutions for protecting businesses from ransomware attacks. These include team training to become familiar with and not fall victim to phishing attempts, ProSight Active Security Monitoring for remote monitoring and management, plus deployment of next-generation security gateways with AI technology from SentinelOne to identify and extinguish new threats quickly. Progent also provides the assistance of seasoned ransomware recovery engineers with the track record and perseverance to rebuild a compromised environment as urgently as possible.

Progent's Ransomware Recovery Help
After a crypto-ransomware event, sending the ransom in cryptocurrency does not ensure that distant criminals will return the needed keys to decipher all your information. Kaspersky determined that seventeen percent of ransomware victims never recovered their files after having paid the ransom, resulting in additional losses. The risk is also very costly. Ryuk ransoms are often a few hundred thousand dollars. For larger enterprises, the ransom demand can be in the millions. The other path is to piece back together the vital components of your IT environment. Without access to full information backups, this calls for a broad range of skills, well-coordinated team management, and the ability to work 24x7 until the task is over.

For twenty years, Progent has made available professional Information Technology services for businesses throughout the US and has earned Microsoft's Partnership certification in the Datacenter and Cloud Productivity competencies. Progent's team of subject matter experts (SMEs) includes professionals who have attained high-level certifications in foundation technologies such as Microsoft, Cisco, VMware, and major distributions of Linux. Progent's security specialists have garnered internationally-renowned certifications including CISA, CISSP, ISACA CRISC, GIAC, and CMMC 2.0. (See Progent's certifications). Progent also has expertise in accounting and ERP software solutions. This breadth of expertise provides Progent the capability to quickly identify necessary systems and re-organize the remaining pieces of your IT environment following a ransomware attack and configure them into a functioning network.

Progent's ransomware team of experts utilizes state-of-the-art project management systems to coordinate the sophisticated restoration process. Progent knows the importance of acting quickly and together with a client's management and Information Technology resources to assign priority to tasks and to put critical services back on-line as soon as humanly possible.

Client Story: A Successful Crypto-Ransomware Intrusion Recovery
A small business engaged Progent after their organization was brought down by Ryuk ransomware virus. Ryuk is believed to have been created by Northern Korean state sponsored cybercriminals, suspected of using approaches leaked from America's National Security Agency. Ryuk attacks specific businesses with little or no tolerance for disruption and is among the most profitable versions of ransomware. Headline targets include Data Resolution, a California-based data warehousing and cloud computing company, and the Chicago Tribune. Progent's customer is a single-location manufacturing company located in the Chicago metro area with around 500 workers. The Ryuk attack had brought down all essential operations and manufacturing processes. Most of the client's system backups had been directly accessible at the beginning of the intrusion and were encrypted. The client considered paying the ransom demand (exceeding two hundred thousand dollars) and hoping for the best, but in the end reached out to Progent.

Progent worked with the client to quickly identify and assign priority to the most important elements that had to be recovered to make it possible to continue company functions:

• Active Directory (AD)
• Email
• MRP System

Within 2 days, Progent was able to restore Windows Active Directory to its pre-virus state. Progent then charged ahead with rebuilding and storage recovery on mission critical systems. All Exchange schema and configuration information were usable, which accelerated the restore of Exchange. Progent was able to find local OST data files (Microsoft Outlook Offline Folder Files) on team workstations and laptops in order to recover email information. A not too old offline backup of the client's manufacturing systems made it possible to restore these vital applications back on-line. Although a lot of work needed to be completed to recover completely from the Ryuk attack, the most important systems were recovered rapidly:

Over the next month critical milestones in the recovery project were made through tight cooperation between Progent engineers and the customer:

• In-house web sites were brought back up with no loss of data.
• The MailStore Exchange Server with over 4 million historical emails was brought on-line and accessible to users.
• CRM/Orders/Invoicing/Accounts Payable/AR/Inventory modules were 100% recovered.
• A new Palo Alto 850 firewall was deployed.
• 90% of the user desktops were operational.

Conclusion
A probable business extinction disaster was avoided through the efforts of results-oriented professionals, a broad array of knowledge, and close collaboration. Although in retrospect the crypto-ransomware incident detailed here would have been identified and disabled with advanced cyber security technology solutions and best practices, user training, and well thought out security procedures for information protection and applying software patches, the reality is that state-sponsored cyber criminals from Russia, North Korea and elsewhere are relentless and are an ongoing threat. If you do get hit by a crypto-ransomware virus, remember that Progent's team of experts has a proven track record in ransomware virus defense, removal, and information systems disaster recovery.

To review or download a PDF version of this ransomware incident report, please click:
Progent's Ryuk Incident Recovery Case Study Datasheet. (PDF - 282 KB)

Additional Ransomware Protection Services Available from Progent
Progent can provide businesses in Allentown a portfolio of remote monitoring and security assessment services designed to help you to reduce your vulnerability to ransomware. These services utilize next-generation machine learning capability to detect zero-day variants of ransomware that are able to evade legacy signature-based anti-virus products.

• ProSight LAN Watch: Server and Desktop Monitoring
  ProSight LAN Watch is Progent's server and desktop monitoring managed service that uses advanced remote monitoring and management (RMM) technology to keep your network running efficiently by tracking the health of vital computers that drive your information system. When ProSight LAN Watch detects an issue, an alert is sent automatically to your specified IT management staff and your Progent engineering consultant so that all looming problems can be resolved before they can disrupt productivity. Find out more about ProSight LAN Watch server and desktop remote monitoring services.

• ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM: Unified RMM for Networks, Servers, and Desktops
  ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM software offers a unified, cloud-driven solution for managing your network, server, and desktop devices by providing an environment for performing common time-consuming jobs. These include health checking, patch management, automated repairs, endpoint configuration, backup and restore, A/V response, remote access, standard and custom scripts, resource inventory, endpoint profile reporting, and debugging support. When ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM uncovers a serious incident, it transmits an alarm to your specified IT personnel and your Progent consultant so that potential issues can be taken care of before they interfere with your network. Learn more details about ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM server and desktop monitoring services.

• ProSight WAN Watch: Network Infrastructure Remote Monitoring and Management
  ProSight WAN Watch is a network infrastructure management service that makes it simple and inexpensive for small and mid-sized businesses to map out, monitor, enhance and troubleshoot their connectivity hardware such as switches, firewalls, and access points as well as servers, printers, endpoints and other networked devices. Using state-of-the-art Remote Monitoring and Management technology, WAN Watch makes sure that infrastructure topology maps are kept updated, copies and displays the configuration information of almost all devices on your network, monitors performance, and sends notices when problems are detected. By automating time-consuming management processes, WAN Watch can knock hours off ordinary tasks such as making network diagrams, expanding your network, finding appliances that need important software patches, or resolving performance bottlenecks. Learn more details about ProSight WAN Watch infrastructure management consulting.

• ProSight Reporting: Real-time and In-depth Reporting for Ticketing and Network Monitoring Platforms
  ProSight Reporting is an expanding line of in-depth management reporting plug-ins designed to integrate with the leading ticketing and remote network monitoring platforms such as ConnectWise Manage, ConnectWise Automate, Customer Thermometer, Auvik, and SentinelOne. ProSight Reporting incorporates Microsoft Graph and utilizes color coding to highlight and contextualize key issues such as inconsistent support follow-up or machines with missing patches. By identifying ticketing or network health concerns clearly and in near-real time, ProSight Reporting enhances productivity, lowers management overhead, and saves money. For details, see ProSight Reporting for ticketing and network monitoring platforms.

• ProSight Data Protection Services: Managed Backup and Recovery Services
  Progent has worked with advanced backup/restore software companies to produce ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a family of offerings that provide backup-as-a-service. ProSight DPS services manage and monitor your backup operations and allow non-disruptive backup and fast recovery of vital files/folders, applications, system images, plus VMs. ProSight DPS helps you avoid data loss resulting from hardware failures, natural calamities, fire, malware like ransomware, human error, malicious employees, or software bugs. Managed backup services in the ProSight DPS product family include ProSight Altaro VM Backup, ProSight 365 Total Backup (formerly Altaro 365 Backup), ProSight DPS ECHO Backup based on Barracuda dedicated hardware, and ProSight MSP360 Hybrid Backup. Your Progent consultant can assist you to identify which of these managed services are most appropriate for your network.

• ProSight Email Guard: Inbound and Outbound Spam Filtering and Data Leakage Protection
  ProSight Email Guard is Progent's spam filtering and email encryption service that incorporates the technology of top information security vendors to deliver web-based control and world-class security for your inbound and outbound email. The hybrid architecture of Email Guard managed service integrates cloud-based filtering with a local gateway device to offer advanced defense against spam, viruses, Denial of Service Attacks, Directory Harvest Attacks, and other email-borne threats. The cloud filter serves as a first line of defense and blocks most threats from reaching your security perimeter. This decreases your vulnerability to external attacks and saves network bandwidth and storage. Email Guard's onsite security gateway appliance provides a further level of inspection for inbound email. For outbound email, the on-premises gateway offers anti-virus and anti-spam protection, policy-based Data Loss Prevention, and email encryption. The local security gateway can also assist Microsoft Exchange Server to track and protect internal email that stays inside your security perimeter. For more details, visit ProSight Email Guard spam and content filtering.

• ProSight Duo Multi-Factor Authentication: Identity Validation, Endpoint Policy Enforcement, and Protected Single Sign-on (SSO)
  Progent's Duo authentication service plans utilize Cisco's Duo cloud technology to protect against stolen passwords by using two-factor authentication. Duo enables one-tap identity confirmation with iOS, Google Android, and other out-of-band devices. With 2FA, when you sign into a secured online account and enter your password you are requested to confirm who you are on a unit that only you have and that uses a different network channel. A broad range of out-of-band devices can be used as this second means of authentication such as an iPhone or Android or watch, a hardware token, a landline phone, etc. You can designate several validation devices. For details about ProSight Duo two-factor identity authentication services, go to Duo MFA two-factor authentication services.

• Progent's Outsourced/Shared Help Desk: Help Desk Managed Services
  Progent's Help Center managed services enable your IT team to offload Support Desk services to Progent or split activity for support services seamlessly between your internal network support team and Progent's extensive roster of IT support engineers and subject matter experts (SMEs). Progent's Shared Service Desk offers a transparent supplement to your corporate IT support resources. End user interaction with the Help Desk, provision of support, escalation, trouble ticket generation and tracking, efficiency metrics, and management of the service database are consistent regardless of whether incidents are taken care of by your core support resources, by Progent, or a mix of the two. Learn more about Progent's outsourced/co-managed Call Desk services.

• Progent Active Protection Against Ransomware: AI-based Ransomware Detection and Cleanup
  Progent's Active Defense Against Ransomware is an endpoint protection solution that incorporates cutting edge behavior analysis technology to defend endpoint devices and physical and virtual servers against modern malware attacks like ransomware and email phishing, which routinely evade traditional signature-based AV tools. Progent Active Security Monitoring services protect local and cloud resources and offers a single platform to address the entire malware attack lifecycle including protection, identification, mitigation, cleanup, and post-attack forensics. Key capabilities include one-click rollback using Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) and real-time system-wide immunization against newly discovered attacks. Find out more about Progent's ransomware defense and cleanup services.

• ProSight IT Asset Management: Network Documentation Management
  ProSight IT Asset Management service is an IT infrastructure documentation management service that allows you to capture, update, find and safeguard data about your IT infrastructure, procedures, business apps, and services. You can instantly locate passwords or IP addresses and be alerted about impending expirations of SSLs ,domains or warranties. By updating and managing your network documentation, you can eliminate up to half of time spent trying to find critical information about your IT network. ProSight IT Asset Management features a common repository for storing and sharing all documents required for managing your network infrastructure like recommended procedures and self-service instructions. ProSight IT Asset Management also supports advanced automation for collecting and associating IT data. Whether you're planning improvements, doing regular maintenance, or responding to an emergency, ProSight IT Asset Management gets you the data you require the instant you need it. Read more about Progent's ProSight IT Asset Management service.

• Patch Management: Patch Management Services
  Progent's support services for patch management offer organizations of all sizes a versatile and cost-effective alternative for assessing, validating, scheduling, applying, and tracking software and firmware updates to your ever-evolving IT network. In addition to optimizing the protection and functionality of your IT network, Progent's software/firmware update management services allow your IT staff to concentrate on more strategic projects and activities that derive the highest business value from your network. Find out more about Progent's software/firmware update management services.

• ProSight Virtual Hosting: Hosted Virtual Machines at Progent's Tier III Data Center
  With Progent's ProSight Virtual Hosting service, a small or mid-size organization can have its critical servers and applications hosted in a secure Tier III data center on a fast virtual host configured and maintained by Progent's IT support professionals. Under Progent's ProSight Virtual Hosting model, the client retains ownership of the data, the operating system software, and the apps. Since the environment is virtualized, it can be moved immediately to a different hardware solution without requiring a time-consuming and technically risky configuration process. With ProSight Virtual Hosting, your business is not tied a single hosting service. Learn more about ProSight Virtual Hosting services.

• ProSight Active Security Monitoring: Endpoint Protection and Ransomware Defense
  ProSight Active Security Monitoring is an endpoint protection (EPP) service that utilizes SentinelOne's cutting edge behavior-based machine learning technology to guard physical and virtual endpoints against new malware assaults like ransomware and file-less exploits, which easily get by traditional signature-based anti-virus products. ProSight Active Security Monitoring protects local and cloud resources and provides a single platform to automate the complete threat lifecycle including filtering, identification, mitigation, cleanup, and post-attack forensics. Top features include single-click rollback with Windows VSS and automatic network-wide immunization against newly discovered attacks. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. Learn more about Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) next-generation endpoint protection and ransomware recovery.

• ProSight Enhanced Security Protection (ESP): Physical and Virtual Endpoint Security and Exchange Email Filtering
  ProSight Enhanced Security Protection (ESP) managed services deliver economical in-depth security for physical and virtual servers, workstations, smartphones, and Exchange Server. ProSight ESP uses adaptive security and advanced heuristics for round-the-clock monitoring and responding to cyber assaults from all attack vectors. ProSight ESP offers two-way firewall protection, penetration alarms, endpoint management, and web filtering via leading-edge technologies packaged within a single agent managed from a unified console. Progent's security and virtualization consultants can help your business to design and configure a ProSight ESP deployment that addresses your organization's unique requirements and that helps you prove compliance with government and industry information security regulations. Progent will assist you define and configure security policies that ProSight ESP will enforce, and Progent will monitor your network and respond to alerts that require urgent attention. Progent can also help your company to set up and test a backup and disaster recovery system like ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS) so you can recover rapidly from a destructive cyber attack such as ransomware. Read more about Progent's ProSight Enhanced Security Protection (ESP) unified endpoint protection and Microsoft Exchange email filtering.